Integrated peri-urban areas in the transition towards climate neutrality

Code: 34815 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CIT-01-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/09/2024 | End submission calls: 11/02/2025

Peri-urban areas lie at the periphery of cities. They are the interface between rural and urban environments and are often the subject of high pressure from the urban core which results in an un-controlled and uneven urban expansion towards the rural territory often triggering environmental degradation. While dispersed and heterogenous in terms of land-occupancy, density and services and amenities distribution, the peri-urban territory integrates mutual inter-dependences within the urban-rural continuum. These can be associated with people (inwards and outwards migration or socio-demographic change) as well as with linkages and flows between a variety of rural and urban related functions and activities (ranging from industrial and recycling manufacturing, agriculture production and food processing, sanitation, waste disposal, drinking water provisions, to housing – including slums and gated communities – transport and associated infrastructure, large-scale commercial sites, and large recreational areas such as parks or forests), which juxtapose, collide and mesh in unintended and unplanned ways.
Peri-urban areas are also the subject of weaker governance structures and limited institutional capacity, which in return limits the capacity to regulate economic activities and land-use and land coverage and makes it difficult to implement effective and integrated local, regional, and functional urban area wide policies and programs.

This topic aims to foster the integration of green and smart mobility, energy, industry and governance solutions and measures within the current peri-urban development and planning practice to reduce these areas GHG emissions and to improve their liveability.

Mobility Management Plans and Behavioural Change

Code: 34812 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CIT-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/09/2024 | End submission calls: 11/02/2025

The shift towards a decarbonised transport system is considered as challenging compared to other sectors of the economy. Achieving urban mobility decarbonisation can involve a variety of policy and technology measures and solutions. Technological innovations should be complemented by measures tapping into changes that target travel patterns and generate a shift in the daily mobility behaviour.
The objective of this topic is to explore, analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of mobility management schemes (influencing behavioural change, travel demand and travel supply) in achieving a decarbonised and energy-efficient urban mobility system.

Rethinking urban spaces towards climate neutrality

Code: 34810 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CIT-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/09/2024 | End submission calls: 11/02/2025

With our cities being overly populated and dense, the scarcity of urban public space requires smart urban design, planning, management and prioritisation in urban space allocation to different uses, amenities, and services. From the reallocation of the urban public space to more sustainable forms of transport and energy generation and use, intermodal hubs, and interchanges to the dynamic management of the street profile and curb side, and the integration of suburban/peripheral areas in the general urban fabric and patterns, current and future research should aim to make urban public spaces more liveable while enabling better a connectivity, accessibility, social interaction, inclusion and transit in the context of a changing climate. Concepts like the “15-minute city” and “superblocks” are gaining momentum and have an enormous potential in shaping the urban planning and design practice and the mobility services based on the principle of proximity.

Zero-pollution cities

Code: 34808 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CIT-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/09/2024 | End submission calls: 11/02/2025

Cities are concerned by various types of pollution, including air, water, soil and noise pollution, and their negative impacts on human health and the environment. Many of these pollutants emanate from the same sources as greenhouse gas emissions being tackled in the context of the EU Mission Climate-Neutral Smart Cities, so it is clear there are potential environmental co-benefits from reducing GHG emissions. Designing effective policies to protect city dwellers from pollution depends on solid evidence as well as on cooperation and communication between and with policy makers and citizens.
Due to resource constraints, city administrations may often need to prioritise between different actions on different forms of pollution – and for this a solid risk-based evidence-base of the exposure to, impacts of and measures against pollution will allow to arrive at more informed and cost-effective local measures.
More informed, coherent and targeted local measures will help European cities to deliver environmental co-benefits under the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral, Smart Cities, comply with or exceed EU legislative standards for air and water quality, and supporting the delivery of environmental objectives such as the targets of the EU Zero Pollution Action Plan and commitments under the Green City Accord.

Applicants should propose projects that deliver better and innovative local measures against pollution through, among others, improved knowledge on the exposures of citizens to pollution and improved health impact assessments and strategies to reduce health impacts related to air, water, soil and/or noise pollution.

Assessment of Soil Health in Africa

Code: 34421 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-09 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

Africa has a large degree of degraded soils, suboptimal land use, population growth and increasingly urban population. These factors are contributing to increased competition and pressures on land (less land per farmer, less quality land per farmer, climate change, biodiversity loss) resulting in unfavourable economics of farming and ecosystem management.

The IPBES report on land degradation and restoration highlights huge economic cost of land and soil degradation, including increasing cost of no action. Soil health is key to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Therefore, holistic systems approaches are needed for addressing multiple context specific soil health related challenges at country and regional level. In addition, evidence driven analytical framework is urgently needed for adequate soil health priority setting and planning at regional and national level, alignment of partners and investments.

Managing forest peatsoils

Code: 34419 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-08 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

Peatlands can provide multiple ecosystem services such as timber production, climate regulation, water quality control, flood abatement, biodiversity conservation, as well as recreational benefits. However, this potential is compromised due to drainage. Alternative soil management practices for forest peat soils, in particular through the combination of rewetting techniques and forest management (with the exclusion of afforestation), have the potential to improve the environmental, climate and economic performance of peatlands, as well as reduce the impacts of forest harvesting on nutrient, sediment and dissolved organic carbon exports. In particular, practices are needed that effectively address trade-offs from forests multifunctionality and apply an integrated approach to their management (considering biodiversity, climate change challenges, bio-economy needs etc.).

This topic does not cover agricultural emissions.

Development of high spatial-resolution monitoring approaches and geographically-explicit registry for carbon farming

Code: 34416 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-07 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

The EU aims to boost sustainable carbon farming solutions by significantly improving Europe’s capacity to quantify, monitor and verify carbon removals. The development of soil carbon removal deployment strategies and a robust and validated soil carbon monitoring system approach, at scale relevant for land managers, are therefore crucial.

To show the extent to which a carbon farming activity results in a positive climate impact, standardised baselines will be established, reflecting the standard performance of comparable activities in similar social, economic, environmental and technological circumstances and geographical locations. This type of baselines ensures objectivity and transparency, minimises compliance costs and other administrative costs, and positively recognises the action of first movers who have already engaged in carbon farming activities. However, the geographically-explicit data needed to identify and set such standardised baselines and help prioritise regions and actions for carbon farming is currently missing.

Moreover, it is important that the EU boosts sustainable carbon farming solutions by enabling a business model that financially rewards land managers for such activities.

The Carbon Removal Certification (CRC) Framework aims to ensure that financial incentives from both private and public sources are channelled towards high-quality carbon removals and nature-based solutions. However, to ensure its correct functioning, interoperable public registries and MRV protocols compliant with standards and technical rules to be set out at EU level are needed.

Harnessing the multifunctional potential of soil biodiversity for healthy cropping systems

Code: 34057 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-06 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

Below ground biodiversity plays a major role in soil structure, nutrient supply, water cycling, nutrient uptake by plants, and in the biocontrol of plant pests and diseases. The interactions between communities of soil organisms, crops and their environment (holobiont) profoundly influence crop, soil and agroecosystem health and productivity. Notably, the interplay between soil fauna, soil microbial community, soil chemistry, and plant immune responses can be enhanced to harness the potential of soil ecosystem to defend against pathogens, pests and other detrimental organisms and to promote plant health and productivity. By managing soil ecosystems to enhance soil health through farming practices (e.g., crop rotation, use of microbiome solutions, etc.), it is possible to support plant defences, suppress diseases, improve nutrient availability and enhance plant resilience to various stressors. In addition, agricultural sustainability will be increased and contribute to climate change mitigation.

There is a need to develop, test and deploy management practices that, by enhancing soil health, will facilitate, for instance, the management of soil-borne plant pests and diseases (e.g., bacteria, fungi, nematodes, root-feeding insects), and support ground nesting pollinators.

Soil health, pollinators and key ecosystem functions

Code: 34053 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

Pollination is a key ecosystem service for crops and food production. Therefore, a specific focus on pollinating insects is required. Many solitary wasps and 70% of wild bees nest below ground and require protection during this crucial period of their lifecycle.

Projects results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Improved knowledge and understanding of the biology and ecology of insect species spending part of their life cycle on or in the soil, with specific focus on ground-nesting pollinators.
• Better understanding of the major causes of the decline of these insects and the synergistic effects of various threats, including the quantitative and qualitative aspects related to the magnitude of their decline.
• More effective measures to tackle the loss of soil-dependent insects.

Systems to quantify nitrogen fluxes and uncertainties in European landscapes

Code: 34050 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

Soil-derived gaseous nitrogen emissions from agriculture are often overlooked due to challenges in monitoring. A comprehensive assessment of both gaseous and non-gaseous nitrogen losses, including their geographical distribution and varying temporal resolution, is essential to inform effective greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategies and encourage the adoption of higher Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tiers at the national level.

Nitrogen losses are highly episodic, and the current temporal and spatial resolution of information regarding nitrogen dynamics across Europe is insufficient for a comprehensive estimation of the full nitrogen budget at a continental scale. The most commonly used methodology for measuring N-flux involves discontinuous flux measurements accompanied by standard gap-filling methods, which lead to large uncertainties and biased emission factors. Additionally, most existing observations focus on temperate zones and single flux exit pathways, neglecting the full spectrum of nitrogen forms, including both gaseous and non-gaseous forms across different climatic conditions. Data and observations are particularly lacking in the Mediterranean basin and some nitrogen transformation pathways are not well investigated. To address these gaps, accurate information must be acquired, which will facilitate the development of effective management strategies that effectively minimise total nitrogen losses from soil. Additionally, this information will improve the parameterization and validation of models and increase the confidence of model predictions when scaled to the continental level. This will ultimately lead to a more refined and accurate estimation of nitrogen surplus, enrich existing dashboard estimates, and further support the evaluation of the effectiveness of management strategies, and guide future research and policy decisions related to mitigation efforts.

Towards a dynamic monitoring system to assess status and spatiotemporal changes of soil erosion at European scale

Code: 34048 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

Current EU/European estimates on soil loss by water and wind erosion are long-term averages performed with empirical models, which, in agricultural areas, are subject to huge uncertainties. Improved estimates would contribute to developing a process-based model, which can incorporate management practices and their potential for reducing soil loss by water, and wind erosion in agricultural fields and facilitate the adoption of the best practices. Other processes such as tillage erosion or gullies can also be considered.
Existing partially explicit parcel data (e.g., LPIS-GSA), data from the EU Land use and land cover survey (LUCAS) and the latest updates from the COPERNICUS platform could/should be used to improve current pan-European modelling frameworks.

Living Labs in urban areas for healthy soils

Code: 34046 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

Urbanization is a challenge for soil health, due to construction and infrastructure development that entails, among other, land take, soil sealing, contamination or compaction. Against this background and by working together on common challenges, actors in living labs in urban areas will be able to replicate actions and solutions, compare results, exchange good practices, validate methodologies, benefit from cross-fertilisation, and connect with their local/regional ecosystem.

Co-creating solutions for soil health in Living Labs

Code: 34044 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 08/05/2024 | End submission calls: 08/10/2024

The Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ proposes a novel approach to research and innovation in the area of soil health, including the implementation of living labs.

For the purpose of the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, soil health living labs are defined as “user-centred, place-based and transdisciplinary research and innovation ecosystems, which involve land managers, scientists and other relevant partners in systemic research and co-design, testing, monitoring and evaluation of solutions, in real-life settings, to improve their effectiveness for soil health and accelerate adoption”.

Living labs are thus collaborations between multiple actors that operate and undertake experiments on several sites at regional or sub-regional level. Individual sites could be, e.g., farms, forest stands, urban green or industrial areas, enterprises and other locations, where the work is carried out and monitored under real-life conditions.

Lighthouses, in contrast, are defined as “places for demonstration of solutions, training and communication that are exemplary in their performance in terms of soil health improvement”. They are individual, local sites (one farm, one forest exploitation, one industrial site, one urban city green area, etc.) that either can be part of a living lab or be situated outside a living lab.

According to the Mission Implementation Plan, living labs involve actors from different backgrounds, disciplines and/or sectors and are composed of 10 to 20 experimental sites. However, depending on the specific context (e.g., the land use(s), the soil health challenge(s) addressed), applicants can propose living labs with fewer experimental sites.

Demonstration of approaches to improve bankability of solutions by design, addressing the co-benefits (mitigation and adaptation) to improve revenues streams

Code: 33966 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CLIMA-01-06 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

While evidence suggests that there is financing available to address climate adaptation, it is also evident that there is a shortage of bankable opportunities. Most promising climate adaptation projects rely on grants and public investments for their development. In many cases, while they benefit the public good, they struggle to prove any profitability and they risk getting abandoned at the end of the project when the initial financing comes to an end.

The European Investment Bank has shown that climate projects succeeding in securing investments are very rarely only addressing adaptation to climate change and in most of the cases they rather add a climate proofing component to a bigger project.

Proposals should identify financially valuable cases of climate projects including climate adaptation dimension on top of other benefits.

Demonstration of solutions specifically suited to rural areas and small/ medium size population local communities

Code: 33963 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CLIMA-01-07 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

This topic focuses on the demonstration of solutions specifically suited to rural areas and small/ medium size population local communities.

Proposals should identify approaches and innovative solutions leading to an increase of the resilience and adaptation capacity to climate change which are particularly suitable for implementation by small and medium local authorities and the rural context. These solutions could include technological, social and business-related aspects or a combination of those. Nature-based solutions should be explored as priority and be at the very heart of the development whenever possible.

Demonstration of approaches by regions and local authorities focused on increasing climate resilience of the most vulnerable social groups (just climate resilience)

Code: 33960 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CLIMA-01-08 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

This topic is related with the demonstration of different approaches by regions and local authorities focused on increasing climate resilience of the most vulnerable social groups (just climate resilience).

Proposals should identify, develop, test and demonstrate equitable adaptation actions and solutions, increasing adaptive capacity, reducing vulnerability and risks and addressing specific climate vulnerabilities identified as relevant at regional and local scale, taking into account place-based climate data, socio-economic information, and local governence.

Systemic and cross-sectoral solutions for climate resilience, tailored to the local needs of regions and local authorities

Code: 33958 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CLIMA-01-09 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

The growing complexity, interdependencies and interconnectedness of modern societies and economies require that climate action is tackled with a systemic approach. Effectively adapting to climate change relies on cross-sectoral approaches, looking at the system as a whole, and on the inclusion of a variety of actors.

This topic focuses on systemic and cross-sectoral solutions for climate resilience, tailored to the local needs of regions and local authorities.

Supporting national, regional and local authorities across Europe to prepare for the transition towards climate neutrality within cities

Code: 33956 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CIT-02-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 16/05/2024 | End submission calls: 05/09/2024

Cities are increasingly taking a leading role in the green and digital transition. National and regional authorities have a key role to play to support cities ambition and facilitate the process.

The objective of this action is to strengthen existing national networks in Member States and Associated Countries as well as encourage and support the creation of such structures in countries where this has not yet taken place and empower them to act as clearly identifiable national contacts to support cities in pursuing their climate neutrality ambition and related targets.

Setting up a New European Bauhaus hub for results and impact

Code: 33954 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-NEB-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 07/05/2024 | End submission calls: 19/09/2024

A ‘New European Bauhaus hub for results and impacts’ is required to collect, centralise, manage, monitor and exploit the knowledge produced by the NEB projects, the NEB Community and other relevant NEB actions (e.g. projects resulting from EU-funded calls dedicated to NEB across the different EU programmes, NEB Lab) while also ensuring cooperation and collaboration between them. By having an overview of all the knowledge produced, the progress made, the challenges faced and the research gaps yet to overcome, the hub will be an agile instrument that will contribute to informing the implementation of the NEB Facility and will help to increase its impact. Ultimately, it will contribute to advancing the objectives of the NEB in a coherent manner.

New governance models for the co-design and co-construction of public spaces in neighbourhoods by communities

Code: 33951 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-NEB-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 07/05/2024 | End submission calls: 19/09/2024

Addressing societal challenges such as climate change, energy poverty, the pandemic, ageing population or the increased societal divide will require to rethink the way we develop and live in our neighbourhoods. It is key to empower people to take an active role in co-designing those spaces. This can lead to greater acceptance, enhanced sense of belonging, social trust and an increased willingness to further engage with the community, and thus promote a global positive social impact on people’s well-being and the neighbourhood as a whole.

Building on work carried out in previous projects, proposals will study, refine and validate existing engagement approaches, that allow residents, businesses, cultural organisations and local governments to co-design and co-create public spaces in neighbourhoods. For instance, this should include how to involve citizens in the development and maintenance of public spaces and neighbourhoods; or flexible designs allowing communities to re-create or re-furbish spaces according to evolving needs. Special attention should be paid to involve diverse groups and citizens at risk of exclusion.

Exploiting the potential of secondary bio-based products

Code: 33949 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-NEB-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 07/05/2024 | End submission calls: 19/09/2024

Although the NEB has been championing for the built environment, more research is needed on products that make use of secondary bio-based construction materials, such as from by-products or waste from other industries or processes, including bio-based composites and residues/by-products from agriculture or from fishing, aquaculture and agro-food industries, in line with the cascading principles. Using such products in the construction sector will reduce reliance on primary resources, hence minimising the environmental impact associated with their extraction and processing.

Proposals should increase the potential of innovative bio-based products making use of materials from secondary sources for construction applications, thereby enhancing the circular bio-based economy in the construction sector, in line with the NEB values and the cascading principles.

Improve design for transformative approaches and build local capacity for implementation of available solutions focused on climate adaptation

Code: 33947 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CLIMA-01-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

Local adaptation to climate change measures should never be taken in isolation. They are part of the socio-economic fabric of the region and its bio-geographic constraints (for example, its position in a certain river basin, along a certain coastline or in mountainous areas).

This topic aims to better integrate the Mission on adaptation to climate change into the regional socio-economic policies and the just transition. This should be also coupled with raising the awareness of local authorities for co-creation opportunities between adaptation and other investments.

Research the complex interplay between the climate and biodiversity crises towards more systemic approaches and solutions

Code: 33944 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CLIMA-01-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

Climate change and biodiversity loss are two interdependent crises that are complex, cascading, and compounding. Tackling them in an effective way must rely on a much more systemic approach than what has been achieved so far, which requires a better understanding of their interdependencies and feedback loops.

This topic is focused on the research of the complex interplay between the climate and biodiversity crises towards more systemic approaches and solutions.

Develop and refine outcome indicators to measure progress on climate resilience at national, regional and local levels, including knowledge and feedback developed from the Mission

Code: 33942 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CLIMA-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

This topic aims at strengthening the EU’s capacity, knowledge, and involvement of relevant stakeholders in the monitoring and evaluation of current adaptation policies. It aims to facilitate policy, financial, corporate, and individual planning and decisions affecting resilience to climate impacts. Lessons learnt from currently available indicators, the literature, efforts underway surveying the use and prospects for indicators within the framework of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and feedback from the experience in the first years of the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change work provide the basis for further developments.

Bringing together the national level with the engaged regional and local levels (multi-level governance)

Code: 33940 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CLIMA-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

This topic focuses to bring together the national level with the engaged regional and local levels (multi-level governance).

The successful project is expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• The national relevant governance for innovation and climate adaptation is further engaged and mobilised to contribute to the objectives of the EU Mission on adaptation to climate change, and benefit from it.
• The EU Mission is deeply connected with national multi-level governance feeding into Member States, regions and local authorities’ efforts to implement the European Climate Law’s requirements on climate adaptation, and to further develop and update their national, regional and local adaptation plans.
• A set of ‘National Adaptation Hubs’ bridge the gap between the EU and regional/local levels, in the Adaptation mission and further disseminate the solutions emerging from the Mission to other regions and local authorities that are not Charter Signatories.
• A robust twinning scheme grouping of regions and local actors facing similar challenges ensures peer-learning and cross-fertilisation of experiences, further strengthening ongoing peer learning opportunities within the EU Mission, and also providing a tool to disseminate EU Mission’s knowledge beyond the regions and local authorities directly participating in the EU Mission.

Bringing available and actionable solutions for climate adaptation to the knowledge of the regions and local authorities

Code: 33938 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CLIMA-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

This topic will focus to bring available and actionable solutions for climate adaptation to the knowledge of the regions and local authorities.

Analysing further, regional, local authorities are the target group of the proposed activities and the customers of the in-depth knowledge provision on solutions; as such they are not expected to participate as part of the consortium, but they should receive tailor made services from the project funded by this action, which should primarily use the Mission Implementation Platform’s channels to feed them with new information products, also based on the needs (already) expressed by them.

Community-led actions to restore our ocean, seas and waters

Code: 33874 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-02-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 23/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

Reaching the ambitious Mission objectives and targets is dependent on mobilising a broad set of actors to take meaningful action to restore our ocean, seas and waters. Practical, easily accessible support is needed for established or emerging communities of actors to facilitate the deployment at scale of innovative actions, measures and initiatives contributing to the EU Mission’s objectives, and the transformations required at national, regional, and local level.

Each proposed action under this topic should address one of the four basins covered by the Mission ‘Restore our ocean and waters by 2030’.

European Blue Parks – Offshore marine protected areas

Code: 33853 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 23/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

The proposed activities should cover all following objectives:  

• mapping the distribution and condition of marine (benthic and pelagic) habitats in offshore areas (beyond 12 nautical miles from the coast);
• providing the scientific basis for establishing new marine protected areas (or enlarging existing ones) in offshore areas, including strictly protected ones;
• assessing pressures (including cumulative ones) in offshore areas and establishing the necessary conservation measures for MPAs, including through elaboration of their management plans and monitoring schemes.

Our Blue Future – Co-designing a future vision of a restored ocean and water system in the EU by 2030 and 2050

Code: 33850 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-01-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 23/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

This action will develop and co-design transitional alternative futures of the EU, in which the Ocean, seas and waters are conserved or restored to good health.

To support the implementation of the European Green Deal, the Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters and the related EU climate, biodiversity and pollution targets, project results are expected to contribute to all of the followings:

• Increased confidence in and support for the transitions required by the European Green Deal, by co-designing possible science-based transition scenarios for reaching the Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters objectives and related EU climate, biodiversity and pollution targets, including environmental, social, economic and political considerations.
• Support progress in restoring our ocean and waters, in adapting to climate change, reversing biodiversity loss and pollution, by co-designing inspiring narratives that stimulate effective action by policy-makers, citizens and stakeholders, and by identifying the pathways that are necessary to realise them.
• Increased awareness of decision-makers, stakeholders and citizens, in relation to the urgency of the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises and the central role of restoring the entire water system to address these crises.

Danube river basin lighthouse – Protection and restoration of migratory fish habitats

Code: 33846 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 23/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

Proposals under this topic are expected to show how their activities and results will achieve the Mission objective 1 – Protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity. Proposals should focus on the demonstration of sustainable and effective solutions for the enhancement of a protected network of critical habitats, involving relevant actors at a transnational/national scale and across relevant sectors, relevant national and regional authorities, riparian communities, landscape planners, ecologists as well as concerned economic actors, including fishers.

Science for Community – Building the marine Citizen Science data network of the future to valorise data coming from the ocean and increase engagement

Code: 33843 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-01-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 23/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

The objective of this topic is to establish a Marine Citizen Science data network, which will aim to bring together the very important, but scattered and un-coordinated actors of marine citizen science, active in data collection. Such a network will provide a sense of community to these different in nature parties, will increase visibility of marine citizen science data collection activities in Europe and will invest in coordinating these activities by providing a harmonisation framework, which will increase the added value coming from marine citizen science. Such an activity will ensure dual effects towards the Mission’s Ocean cross-cutting enabling actions: it will support targeted engagement of different categories of social actors in the production of credible Marine Knowledge and it will thus directly support the development of the Digital Ocean and Water Knowledge System.

Atlantic and Arctic sea basin lighthouse, Mediterranean Sea basin lighthouse, Baltic and North Sea basin lighthouse - Reducing the environmental impacts of fisheries on marine species and habitats

Code: 33841 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 23/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

Proposals under this topic are expected to identify, test, validate and demonstrate in real conditions, a set of suitable innovative and economically viable solutions, technologies, practices and processes to minimise the impact of fisheries on marine ecosystems, specifically aiming at protecting sensitive species and juvenile fish as identified in the Marine Action Plan as well as respecting animal health and welfare.

Each proposal should address one sea basin – i.e.:

1. Atlantic and Arctic basin or
2. Mediterranean Sea basin or
3. Baltic and North Sea basin), where identified solutions will be demonstrated in several relevant fisheries.

Proposals should take a holistic approach aiming at protecting marine biodiversity while also avoiding potential negative environmental impacts, including on the seabed.

Support for the Coalition of waterfront cities, regions and islands for Mission Ocean and Waters

Code: 33839 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-OCEAN-02-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 23/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

The proposal should coordinate, support and strengthen this growing movement to create a broad Coalition supporting the Mission Ocean and Waters, which will focus on waterfront cities with their ports (coastal and inland), as well as regions and islands committed to implementing this Mission. Importantly, it should aim to build a broad coalition, which also includes, in addition to the regions/cities/islands who already adhered to the Mission Charter, new and so far less active members with equal representation from all Mission lighthouse areas.

Experimental local action for EU missions: knowledge institutions as focal points of transdisciplinary research and innovation activities with European outreach

Code: 33734 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CROSS-02-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 15/05/2024 | End submission calls: 25/09/2024

The EU Missions on cancer, climate adaptation, climate neutral cities, oceans and soil, pursue objectives agreed between Member States and the European Commission in the context of the European Green Deal and health policies. Sustainably managing common-pool resources and the provision of public goods are an important dimension in the EU Missions. scholars consider small-scale multistakeholder activities within a local or regional innovation ecosystem to be crucial for the non-technological innovation processes. Such innovation ecosystems for transformative change include non-commercial stakeholders like civil society and administrations.

The proposal should aim to implement, for the benefit of a specific location or region in an EU Member States or countries associated to Horizon Europe, a research and innovation action.

Support a pragmatic clinical trial programme by cancer charities

Code: 33533 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 18/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

An important aim of Missions is bringing together various disciplines, sectors and actors, such as philanthropy. Hundreds of cancer charities and foundations across Europe support patient-centred research, including clinical trials.

The EU contribution aims to facilitate the coordination and networking between charities themselves as well as with relevant stakeholders across Member States and Associated Countries.
The EU contribution will not co-fund the trials.

Improving the understanding and management of late-effects in adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer

Code: 33531 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 18/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

This topic will contribute to the achievement of the Mission’s objective to improve the quality of life of cancer patients, survivors and their families. The focus should be exclusively on adolescent and young adult (AYA, age range 15-39) cancer patients and survivors.

Accessible and affordable tests to advance early detection of heritable cancers in European regions

Code: 33528 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 18/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

There is a need to validate, pilot, and upscale easy-to-use genetic, multi-omics or other biomarker-based tests for early detection of cancers with an underlying heritable genetic risk, for uptake in regional or national healthcare systems.
Proposals should aim to deliver results through validating, piloting, and upscaling genetic, multi-omics, or other biomarker-based tests for early detection of cancers with underlying heritable genetic risk in routine healthcare.

Use cases for the UNCAN.eu research data platform

Code: 33526 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 18/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

The aim of this topic is to operationalise the UNCAN.eu research data platform foreseen in the Cancer Mission implementation plan, through a series of use-cases. To this goal, proposals are expected to develop tools supporting researchers to access, manage and analyse cancer digital data, building among others on resources developed by EOSC4cancer.

Support dialogue towards the development of national cancer data nodes

Code: 33524 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 18/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

Data is an essential resource to improve our understanding of cancer, advance prevention and early detection strategies, facilitate the delivery of personalised care, and better address the quality of life of cancer patients and survivors.

The Cancer Mission supports the creation of the European Initiative to Understand Cancer (UNCAN.eu, a federated European cancer research data infrastructure) and the European Cancer Patient Digital Centre (ECPDC, a European network of national digital infrastructures for cancer patients).

An information portal for the European Cancer Patient Digital Centre

Code: 33522 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CANCER-01-06 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 18/04/2024 | End submission calls: 18/09/2024

The aim of this action is to design, develop, deploy and operate a pilot information portal of the ECPDC to support the information needs of patients, survivors and caregivers and covering all the spectrum of the cancer patient journey. Specific Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are developed and implemented to timely update the information provided and facilitate the user experience. The future European Cancer Patient Digital Centre (ECPDC) will provide digital services to support cancer patients, survivors and caregivers to facilitate their access to quality information and data sharing.

Framework Partnership Agreement for a European Networked Catalyst Fund for Social Innovation in Support of the Missions

Code: 33520 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CROSS-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 18/04/2024 | End submission calls: 25/09/2024

The action aims at putting the EU Missions in a better position to achieve their societal and environmental transition objectives by improving the funding environment for the upscaling social innovation in the EU and associated countries.

The action shall strengthen the engagement of social innovation actors including philanthropy in the missions.

Successful social innovation projects with a real potential for scaling to advance the EU Missions will benefit from structured and networked funding environment.

A European Social Innovation Advisory Network in support of EU Mission Objectives

Code: 33518 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2024-CROSS-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 18/04/2024 | End submission calls: 25/09/2024

Leveraging social innovation gives rise to solutions that prove more adapted to society, locally and regionally, as well as more robust. In a nutshell, social innovations are “innovations that are social in ends and means.

Social innovation is not only good for society, but also enhances society’s capacity to act. Social innovation engages and empowers citizens, results in a greater sense of agency, i.e. their ability to take action or to choose what action to take, and greater buy-in by citizens, industrialists, and public authorities, elicits active, democratic participation, enhances the resilience of communities, increases the relevance, acceptance, and uptake of innovation, and helps foster lasting changes in individual behaviours, social practices, and governance models. In short, social innovation acts as a system changer.

As such, social innovation processes are relevant to all EU Missions mobilising additional stakeholders and stakeholder communities (like philanthropic funders and for- and with-impact investors) for the benefit of the Missions.

Associating Ukrainian cities to the Climate-neutral and smart cities Mission

Code: 28280 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-CIT-02-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 04/04/2023 | End submission calls: 06/09/2023

The scope of this action is to associate more closely Ukrainian cities in the process of transition towards climate neutrality that is being promoted by the Horizon Europe Climate-neutral and smart cities Mission.

Onsite digital technologies to monitor nutrients and chemical or biological stressors in soil and plants with relevance for food safety and nutrition

Code: 27149 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Onsite digital technologies and applications are emerging in food production and have the potential to detect chemical and biological stressors in soil and plants to help assessing, managing and eventually eliminating potential food safety risks that these stressors may pose. There is a need to improve the development and application of digital tools in primary production and food industries and boost their technological scale-up as a means to address more effectively the soil-food nexus. Moreover, those technologies will help the food industry to track safety and quality of post-harvested food grown in soils.

Innovations to prevent and combat desertification

Code: 27147 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

In 2017, 25% of land in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe was estimated to be at high or very high risk of desertification. The risk is likely to have further increased since then, and to continue increasing because of accelerating climate change and continued pressures from land use and land-use change. Desertification leads to loss of biodiversity, of organic carbon and of other land-based ecosystem services, including reduced agricultural and forest productivity. Desertification further amplifies global warming through the release of CO2 and other greenhouse gases linked with the decrease in vegetation cover. Thus, it has severe environmental, social and economic consequences which need to be urgently tackled.

Back to earth: bringing communities and citizens closer to soil

Code: 27143 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-07 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The Cultural and Creative sectors (CCIs), artists and civil society organisations can play a significant role in promoting a green transition by engaging people and giving visibility to environmental issues. Working together with soil experts, they can contribute to increasing soil literacy by mobilising the population in the protection and restoration of soil health as well as by tackling soil challenges through creative activities.

With regard to soil health, CCIs, artists and civil society organisations have a major role to play in acting as ambassadors and giving visibility to soil related challenges. They are key for raising awareness, for example on the importance of soil and its functions for society (e.g. documentaries, communication campaigns, podcasts, music, artistic performances, exhibitions, literary arts, etc.), and for inspiring and engaging people to take part in a broader debate and in taking actions, including through innovative methodologies and tools, arts and participatory processes. Arts and other creative forms of engagement have shown to be able to mobilise people that would otherwise not easily connect to more scientific or technical information on soils. Existing examples include initiatives to raise awareness on soils in schools by painting with earth colours or citizen projects on collective composting and urban gardening or the production of documentaries and exhibitions for the general public.

Various and innovative methodologies and tools to increase citizens’ awareness and engagement should be tested in different contexts to reach and involve a large number of people with the overall scope of increasing soil literacy across society.

Discovering the subsoil

Code: 27141 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The term “subsoil” refers to the horizons immediately below the topsoil. The subsoil can have a large impact on soil’s potential for productivity and the supply of ecosystem services. Carbon sequestered in subsoils generally contributes to more than half of the total stocks within a soil profile. In contrast to topsoil, organic matter stored in subsoil horizons is characterised by high mean residence times. Conversely, subsoil degradation (e.g. through compaction, pollution, salinization) may limit root penetration, reduce nutrient uptake and result in plants becoming increasingly susceptible to stress such as from pests and diseases or drought and floods. Reduced water infiltration in subsoils limits plant growth, while increasing surface water runoff and the risk of soil erosion.

Activities under this topic should improve our understanding and knowledge of the links between the subsoil and ecosystem services, and they should promote practices that enhance the health status of subsoils in agriculture, forestry and urban areas, as well as in sites of nature conservation and sensitive landscapes.

Soil-friendly practices in horticulture, including alternative growing media

Code: 27138 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Practices in horticulture can affect soil health and related ecosystem services at different points in the value chain, for example at production sites as well as further upstream. Within horticultural production systems, soils are often subjected to particularly intensive use, which can cause among others soil compaction, soil pollution (e.g. excess nutrients, pesticides or microplastics), and salinization as a consequence of intensive irrigation.
Peat is commonly used in nurseries, greenhouses and amateur horticulture as a growing medium and for soil improvement, as it has an excellent water retention capacity, is highly fertile due to the reduced leaching of nutrients and can improve the soil buffering capacity. The extraction of natural peat, however, is highly contentious as the disturbance of peatlands leads to habitat loss, soil degradation, CO2 emissions and increased flood risks. Therefore, sustainable alternatives to natural peat are required. While various peat-free or peat-reduced growing media have become more widely available in recent years, their performance with regard to environmental and other relevant criteria remains difficult to assess.

Soils in spatial planning

Code: 27136 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-06 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Land is a limited resource and needs to be managed carefully to meet the various, sometimes conflicting societal demands on land and soil. Inadequate practices in land management and in land use planning are main drivers of land degradation and result in the loss of important soil functions.
In urban areas for example, soil sealing leads to reduced evaporation and infiltration of water into the soil.
In rural areas, fragmented landscapes lead to a loss of habitats for species and to reduced capacities of soils to perform important functions such as water regulation or carbon storage. At the same time, pressures on rural housing, also call for adequate planning to ensure that soil and land management addresses the manifold needs of rural populations. Spatial planning has a considerable role to play when it comes to steering a more balanced and sustainable use of land and ensuring that net land take is reduced, in particular if applying the principles of a “land take hierarchy“.
Activities under this topic should identify mechanisms and highlight associated benefits that accrue from the increased consideration of soil functions by the spatial planning sector, both in urban and rural environments.

Carbon farming in living labs

Code: 27130 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-09 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Carbon farming can be defined as a green business model that rewards land managers for taking up improved land management practices, resulting in the increase of carbon sequestration in living biomass, dead organic matter and soils by enhancing carbon capture and/or reducing the release of carbon to the atmosphere, in respect of ecological principles favourable to biodiversity and the natural capital overall.

Living labs are collaborations between multiple partners that operate and undertake experiments on several sites at regional or sub-regional level. Individual sites could be e.g. farms, forest stands, urban green or industrial areas, enterprises and other entities, where the work is carried-out and monitored under real-life conditions, regardless of the land size, tenure (land ownerships) or the type of economic activity.

Lighthouses are individual, local sites (one farm, one forest exploitation, one industrial site, one urban city green area, etc.) that either can be part of a living lab or be situated outside a living lab.

Co-creating solutions for soil health in Living Labs

Code: 27128 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-08 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

More research is needed to restore and maintain healthy soils in the EU. There are three components are recognizable within the now well-established living labs research concept, which include (a) co-creation with a large set of stakeholders, (b) carried out in real-life settings and (c) involving the end-users.

Living labs are collaborations between multiple partners that operate and undertake experiments on several sites at regional or sub-regional level. Individual sites could be e.g. farms, forest stands, urban green or industrial areas, enterprises and other entities, where the work is carried-out and monitored under real-life conditions, regardless of the land size, tenure (land ownerships) or the type of economic activity.

Lighthouses are individual, local sites (one farm, one forest exploitation, one industrial site, one urban city green area, etc.) that either can be part of a living lab or be situated outside a living lab.

Soil pollution processes – modelling and inclusion in advanced digital decision-support tools

Code: 27125 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The capacity to carry out a comprehensive scenario analysis at EU level on the impact of key drivers on soil pollution (e.g. societal behaviour, changes in emissions, climate, land management practices) is currently lacking. Soil-oriented fate and transport models exist for certain pollutants (e.g. pesticides, radionuclides, nutrients, metals) but they are generally not integrated with each other, often lack a temporal capacity, and do not always provide a quantification of actual risk to human and environmental health. Models that address the extent, fate, and transport, of emerging contaminants (e.g. microplastics, pharmaceuticals, PFAS) are even scarcer.

Environmental pollution modelling is also often compartmentalized despite a clear understanding that soil can be both a recipient of atmospheric deposition (e.g. nitrogen and sulphur) and a source of atmospheric pollutants and greenhouse gases (e.g. N2O, NH4, CO2, dust, nutrients). While also acting as a buffer to water bodies from pollutants, soils can be at the origin of some of the main problems affecting terrestrial ecosystems, freshwater and marine ecosystems (e.g. nitrification, eutrophication, pesticides, in both water column and sediment) as well as compromise the production of safe food and human health.

There is a clear need to demonstrate that policy measures that affect air quality or industrial emissions can, over time, have a positive impact also on soils and water bodies.

Atlantic and Arctic sea basin lighthouse – Addressing climate change and human activities threats to marine biodiversity

Code: 27123 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Proposals will focus on developing and demonstrating ecosystem-based conservation measures and approaches for reducing cumulative pressure from human activities to address marine biodiversity loss at basin/regional level.
Project results are expected to contribute to the implementation of the Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the EU Arctic policy as well as to a basin-scale cooperation in the Atlantic and Arctic, including through transition arrangements that create socially and economically sustainable propositions for local stakeholders.

Cross-basin topic - Analysis of the obstacles and opportunities for repurposing aged/unused offshore infrastructures

Code: 27121 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-07 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The increasing number of offshore infrastructures to be decommissioned in the near future in the European seas requires a sound assessment of environmental, social and technical impacts that decommissioning processes carry. Alternatives to decommissioning can be viewed as an opportunity to preserve the marine habitats around these platforms and to convert these infrastructures to other potentially valuable uses with environmental, economic and/or scientific benefits.

Proposals under this topic should focus on analysing options to decommissioning offshore platforms, in light of marine conservation and ecosystem protection, identifying possible business models and assessing related implications for policy/decision making and for public acceptance.

Cross-basin topic - Innovative nature-inclusive concepts to reconcile offshore renewables with ocean protection

Code: 27110 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-06 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The EU offshore renewable energy strategy sets ambitious objectives for renewable energy production at sea, namely in relation to the REPowerEU Communication. These objectives are particularly relevant to quickly move away from our dependency on fossil fuels. Deployment of renewable energy solutions needs to be fast and coherent with the EU biodiversity protection and restoration targets. Offshore renewable infrastructures need to be built in such a way that they do not significantly harm the marine environment (e.g.: facilitating the expansion of invasive species) and even, where possible, contribute to restore marine ecosystems. Offshore infrastructures can already have positive impacts on the surrounding biodiversity and act as reefs and refuges for certain species. Nature-inclusive designs might further decrease the negative impacts and enhance desired effects.
Proposals should focus on truly multidisciplinary approaches for the development of nature-inclusive concept design of offshore renewable energy devices.

Roadmap towards the integration of inland waters into the Digital Twin Ocean

Code: 27107 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-09 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The Digital Twin ocean will host a digital infrastructure with data services to facilitate data analytics, advanced modelling and high performance computing, development of what if scenarios to assess policies development in a context of resilience to climate change and sustainable development, supporting as well the implementation of local twins addressing specifics requested by stakeholders at all relevant scales from global to local.

The objective of the CSA is to prepare the development of the inland waters part (rivers, lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, snow and ice etc.) of the Mission Knowledge system, and address activities to be developed to make it integrated or interoperable with the Digital Twin Ocean for a unified Digital twin of Ocean and waters (addressing the hydrosphere as a whole) for the Mission and the lighthouses.

Different scales shall be addressed from catchment to global perspective of the water cycle.

The targeted inland water digital twin shall support the implementation of the Mission through its different lighthouses and specially supporting the one dedicated to Danube.

European Blue Parks – Protection and restoration of marine habitats

Code: 27104 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Proposals under this topic will develop and demonstrate protection and restoration solutions to address the degradation of coastal and marine ecosystems. Proposals should significantly improve the management of marine protected areas in particular through definition of clear science-based conservation objectives and implementation of the necessary conservation measures to achieve those objectives. Amongst the conservation measures, proposals should entail implementation of passive restoration actions through e.g.: strict protection, either as a newly designated strictly protected areas or as part of the zoning in the existing marine protected areas. Proposals should address the whole marine ecosystem functioning in the designated area, including the seabed and its role in carbon storage and as fish spawning and nursery area. Proposals may address either specific vulnerable species or habitats that are under strong pressures or that have the most potential to capture and store carbon.

European natural lakes: demonstration of integrated approaches for protection and restoration of natural lake ecosystems and their biodiversity

Code: 27101 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The proposals under this topic should design and demonstrate integrated and replicable approaches to protect and restore natural lake ecosystems and their biodiversity that result in a significantly improved ecological and chemical status and maintain it in the long-term. The integrated approaches should cover physical and biochemical elements and address in an integrated way all main pressures on the lake ecosystem. Proposals should also consider threats and risks associated to climate change and pressures on biodiversity.

The demonstration activities should combine measures and solutions to reduce pressures and stressors, to restore and protect the lake ecosystem and its biodiversity, in particular using effective nature-based and circular-biobased solutions in the lakes, along shorelines and across their catchments to reduce use of chemicals and retain nutrients. The demonstration sites should be located on natural lakes with a surface area exceeding 1 km2.

Lighthouse in the Baltic and the North Sea basins - Lighthouse in the Baltic and the North Sea basins - Green and energy-efficient small-scale fishing fleets

Code: 27098 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Proposals under this topic are expected to identify a set of suitable innovative and sustainable solutions, technologies, practices and processes to be tested, validated and demonstrated in real conditions to reduce emissions and fuel consumption of small-scale fishing vessels (length of less than 12 m), to increase energy efficiency in their range of activities and comply with EU regulatory frameworks. Solutions should consider multi-disciplinary approaches and guarantee full integration in the vessels. The integrated solutions need to be tested at sea to ensure fitness for purpose in harsh marine environment and for all range of fishing-related activities. Innovative solutions such as battery/hybrid systems, wind-propulsion vessels as well as use of sensors, predictive analytics, data, etc. can be considered.
Impact assessment on the marine environment and its biodiversity should also be carried out as well as an analysis of the obstacles, opportunities and recommendations about good practices for reducing fuel consumption and emissions from small-scale fishing vessels and improving energy efficiency in their range of activities.

Choose your fish: a campaign for responsible consumption of products from the sea

Code: 27095 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-10 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The selected proposal under this topic should help citizens to make responsible choices in relation to the seasonality of fishes and to fish population decline and, when relevant, to the sustainability of fishing techniques.

Ocean & water and arts: the contribution of creative sectors to Mission Ocean and waters

Code: 27093 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-11 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Art and creative sectors can play an important role in the mobilisation of citizens, stakeholders and civil society actors for the protection and restoration of the ocean and inland waters, their biodiversity, aesthetic and cultural heritage. In this context, this action should benefit from close cooperation with the scientific community and the philanthropists.
Mobilisation, cooperation and coordination should be envisaged at interregional/transnational level. Proposals are encouraged to build synergies with relevant activities supported under the Creative Europe programme and with other New European Bauhaus projects, notably those based in coastal and maritime regions.

Integration of socio-ecological models into the Digital Twin Ocean

Code: 27090 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-08 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

This call aims to support the necessary actions and tool developments to appropriately include the social-ecological component of the European Digital Twin Ocean, including the links and interactions with other parts of the system (data, underlying models, ecosystem models, local twins, etc.), the necessary social-economic data considerations and the development of models and other applications to simulate and predict the social and economic part of marine and coastal systems linked to the environmental/ecological components, enabling the development of normative (what-if scenarios) and decision-support tools.

Danube river basin lighthouse – Demonstration of effective and sustainable management of sediments in the Danube river-Black sea system

Code: 27084 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Sediments, a key component of river ecosystems, provide habitats to many aquatic organisms, regulate the morphology and shape of river basin and provide key ecosystem services. Effective sediment management at a river basin scale requires trans-national, cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary approach. Moreover, sediment management accounts for the different demands on sediments; it considers relevant protection aspects and multiple uses of a river and its floodplain (also diverging use interests, conflicts).

The proposals should focus on the demonstration of sustainable and effective solutions for sediment management at river basin scale, including solutions for restoration of sediment balance and flow in the Danube river-Black sea system and measures to improve sediment quality. The demonstration activities should entail a holistic approach to sediment management, involving all relevant actors at a transnational/national scale and across relevant sectors, such as ICPDR, relevant national authorities, riparian communities as well as concerned economic actors.

Mission Climate adaptation, Mission Ocean & waters and Mission Soil Deal for Europe – Joint demonstration of an integrated approach to increasing landscape water retention capacity at regional scale

Code: 27082 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-CLIMA-OCEAN-SOIL-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

This joint topic aims to support at least 75 full-scale deep demonstrations of climate resilience, to the Mission Ocean & Waters’ objective 1, protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, and objective 2, prevent and eliminate pollution of marine and freshwaters. It also contributes to the objectives of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), as well as to the freshwater objectives of the Biodiversity Strategy 2030 on the re-naturalisation of rivers and the restoration of floodplains.

Landscape water retention capacity is understood as the ability of water bodies, soils and other ecosystems to retain water after it has fallen as precipitation; it is fundamental for the protection of biological diversity as life depends on water. High landscape water retention capacity prevents accelerated surface run-off, increases water content in soils and surface and ground water availability for vegetation, improves the quantity and quality of groundwater and aquifer recharge, reduces soil erosion and nutrient run off into surface water bodies, and improves local micro-climate by reducing local air and biomass temperature. As such, it has the potential to prevent and mitigate impacts of extreme hydrological events such as floods and to act as a buffer against heat extremes.
Projects should demonstrate socio-ecological approaches and nature-based solutions to increase landscape and soil water retention capacity, leading to improvement of quality and quantity of ground and surface waters in the area where they are deployed, and boosting resilience to climate change impacts.

Pragmatic clinical trials on minimally invasive diagnostics

Code: 26909 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-CANCER-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/01/2023 | End submission calls: 12/04/2023

While cancer research and innovation have generated novel treatment options, cancer patients across Europe need access to minimally-invasive, patient-centred diagnostic interventions which keep up with increasing demand in a complex and fragmented oncology healthcare landscape with increasing healthcare costs.
Pragmatic clinical trials focus on choosing between care options. Pragmatic trials evaluate effectiveness, the effect of diagnostics in routine (real-world) clinical practice.

Addressing poorly-understood tumour-host interactions to enhance immune system-centred treatment and care interventions in childhood, adolescent, adult and elderly cancer patients.

Code: 26830 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-CANCER-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/01/2023 | End submission calls: 12/04/2023

This topic will contribute to the achievement of the Mission’s objective to better understand cancer by studying tumour-host interactions underpinning the development and progression of cancer, including in advanced localised or metastatic disease. The focus should be on poorly-understood cancers and their subtypes in children, adolescents, adults and the elderly.

Enhance primary cancer prevention through sustainable behavioural change

Code: 26828 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-CANCER-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/01/2023 | End submission calls: 12/04/2023

The Mission on Cancer and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan aim to exploit the potential of primary cancer prevention by addressing key risk factors and health determinants.
Achieving sustainable behavioural change can play a major role in enhancing the impact of health promotion and preventive measures.
The uptake of policymakers across the EU to effectively change behaviour needs to be enhanced. It is also required a systemic approach involving all the main actors at different levels who can facilitate sustainable behavioural change including public authorities, policymakers, health care providers, employers, educational institutions, industry, non-governmental consumer and patient organisations, citizens and media. Also, investments are needed to establish, scale-up or improve health promotion and cancer prevention programmes through increased awareness among citizens about cancer risk factors and related behavioural change, with a focus on hard-to-reach and vulnerable groups of the population.

Establish best practices and tools to improve the quality of life for childhood cancer patients, survivors and their families in European regions

Code: 26810 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-CANCER-01-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/01/2023 | End submission calls: 12/04/2023

Best practices and tools to improve the quality of life for survivors of childhood cancer exist at national, regional and local level. These practices and tools should be scaled up or deployed in regions in at least three different Member States or Associated Countries in order to serve as demonstrators for wider uptake.
Proposals under this topic should aim to deliver results that should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Childhood cancer patients, survivors and their families benefit from enhanced quality of life through better supportive care, personalised counselling approaches, and digital tools that are accessible and affordable. Consequently, they can better achieve their values and personal life goals.
• Health care professionals, supportive workers and councillors enhance the quality of life for childhood cancer patients, survivors and their families.

Mission Ocean and Waters and Mission A Soil Deal for Europe – Joint demonstration of approaches and solutions to address nutrient pollution in the landscape-river-sea system in the Mediterranean sea basin

Code: 26688 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-SOIL-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 17/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Soils are essential for all life-sustaining processes in our planet. If they are healthy and managed sustainably, they provide many benefits to people, nature and climate. However, 60-70% of soils in Europe are in an unhealthy condition.  The presence of nutrients in soil at concentrations higher than plant requirements not only reduces their capacity for providing their vital ecosystem services, but the nutrient runoff contaminates groundwater, streams, rivers, wetlands, lakes and seas, and increases the risk of water and ocean eutrophication. Addressing nutrient pollution is crucial to achieve the objectives of the Water Framework Directive, in particular in relation to nutrient losses in agriculture.

Testing and demonstrating transformative solutions to build resilience towards health risks caused by the effects of climate change

Code: 26566 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-CLIMA-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 10/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

Projects results are expected to contribute to the following:

regions, local authorities and communities have been involved in development and testing of a whole range of transformative solutions, will help to mitigate the effect of climate change on health and human wellbeing, including making the public health sector more climate resilient and better prepared to mitigate the climate change related health challenges.

Testing and demonstrating transformative solutions increasing climate resilience of the agriculture and/or forestry sector.

Code: 26563 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-CLIMA-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 10/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The proposal under this topic should develop and test at least one innovative solution, combining technological, social and business innovation, leading to an increase of the resilience and adaptation capacity to climate change in the involved regions and communities of the agriculture sector and the related value chains. Nature based solutions and the restoration of cropland and grassland should be explored as priority and at the very heart of the development whenever possible.

Testing and demonstrating transformative solutions to protect critical infrastructure from climate change, mainstreaming nature based solutions.

Code: 26561 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-CLIMA-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 10/01/2023 | End submission calls: 20/09/2023

The proposal should identify weaknesses and interlinkages of critical infrastructures, in order to develop and test innovative solutions.
The proposal should address the local vulnerabilities in order to mitigate the potential risks on the infrastructure being it as potential natural disasters, extreme weather events or long-term changes in average climate, as well as their potential negative impacts on critical assets and infrastructures and the interdependencies between those.
The proposal should design and test solutions with the potential to reduce negative impacts both of long terms climate change and also of sudden extreme events attributable to climate change.

Positive clean energy district (PED) digital twins – from modelling to creating climate neutral Cities

Code: 26559 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-CIT-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 10/01/2023 | End submission calls: 27/04/2023

Proposals are expected to develop a digital twin that goes beyond the virtual representation of the built environment, by integrating a comprehensive modelling layer of the local energy systems as well as mobility and transport solutions in the project defined district boundaries. The digital twin should support scenario analysis with different boundary conditions to help define the optimal solution matrix. It should draw on existing components and use open standards, technical specifications and open source software where possible.
Proposed projects are expected to go beyond the creation of a digital twin and the integration of (technical) PED solutions.

Urban greening and re-naturing for urban regeneration, resilience and climate neutrality

Code: 26557 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-CLIMA-CITIES-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 10/01/2023 | End submission calls: 27/04/2023

The objective of this topic is to explore and demonstrate how to operationalize collaborative climate mitigation and adaptation urban planning approaches deploying “greening” and renaturing solutions for regeneration, re-purposing, rehabilitation and pollution abatement purposes.
It invites for demonstration actions in at least four ‘lead’ cities accompanied by at least four ‘replicator’ cities, representing good geographical, climate and socio-economic diversity across Europe and situated each in a different Member State or Associated Country, where existent urban structure and fabric allow rehabilitation, regeneration, re-purposing or (re)conversion of areas such as large scale social housing districts, deprived districts and neighbourhoods, neglected or abandoned areas and brownfields, derelict industrial sites or dysfunctional urban places through greening and renaturing.

Co-designed smart systems and services for user-centred shared zero-emission mobility of people and freight in urban areas (2Zero, CCAM and Cities’ Mission)

Code: 26554 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2023-CIT-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 10/01/2023 | End submission calls: 27/04/2023

Urban mobility is a key sector that cities need to address for accelerating their transition to climate neutrality.
This requires a mutual understanding and alignment of the opportunities of technical solutions from the CCAM and 2Zero partnerships and of needs identified by users and cities striving for the Mission target of climate neutrality.
Proposals under this topic, are expected to develop, test and demonstrate innovative solutions for mobility of people and freight exploiting the combined potential of electrification, automation and connectivity. Proposals must consider and explore the opportunities for technology transfer and synergy potentials with the respective other domain to fully cover passenger and goods mobility, although a primary focus on either people or goods mobility is possible.

Innovations for soil improvement from bio-waste

Code: 22397 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-10 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Project results should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Enhanced entrepreneurship on circularity and regenerative processes and, in particular, increased number of highly innovative start-ups and industrial hubs developing and
  scaling up soil improvers616 from bio-waste.
• Significant reduction of bio-waste for landfill.
• Improved nutrient recovery from bio-waste for soil improvers production.
• Improved environmental, health and safety performance of soil improvers from biowaste and related production operations, including improved testing methods throughout the entire life cycle.
• New improved and demonstrated products, value chains and services available for soil improvers derived from bio-waste.

Remediation strategies, methods and financial models for decontamination and reuse of land in urban and rural areas

Code: 22395 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

This topic will help to progress towards Green Deal objectives, notably the Zero Pollution Strategy. It contributes to the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, in particular to its specific objective 4 “Reduce soil pollution and enhance restoration”.

Project results should contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Private and public land managers can better prioritise and plan activities and investments for soil restoration and decontamination based on increased knowledge on the state of land and soil pollution.
• Knowledge on technical solutions for soil decontamination and restoration is more widespread and better integrated in a wider sustainable land use and spatial planning
  approach.
• Effective measures for soil restoration are in place and contribute to noticeable improvements in soil health on the medium term as well as to the circular use of land
  and to the achievement of no net land take in the EU by 2050.
• Better insights into origin, fate and hotspots of pollution are made available to support assessments of hazard, exposure and risks from soil pollution.
• MS regions affected by the need for a green transition are supported in their efforts to remediate and reuse contaminated soils such as from former mining sites and benefit from new opportunities for soil use.

Soil biodiversity and its contribution to ecosystem services

Code: 22393 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

This topic contributes to the objectives and targets of the EU Soil Strategy which foresees that by 2050, all soils in the EU should be healthy, i.e. are in good chemical, physical and biological conditions, and thus able to continuously provide as many ecosystem services as possible. It also contributes to the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ , in particular to its specific objective 6 “Improve soil structure to enhance habitat quality for soil biota and crops”.

Project results should contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Significantly improved understanding of ecosystem services related to soil biodiversity as well as of the role of soil biodiversity in the provision of relevant soil functions and ecosystem services.
• Enhanced protection, sustainable management and restoration of soil ecosystems through more targeted (policy) incentives and wide-spread knowledge on sustainable soil management practices and solutions, including a better integration of soil within land use planning and frameworks to evaluate ecosystem services.
• Significantly improved availability of soil biodiversity indicators which support the implementation, assessment and monitoring of policy at large scale (i.e. EU).

Improving food systems sustainability and soil health with food processing residues

Code: 22391 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Project results should contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Improved management and recycling of food-processing residues (solid and liquid) for increased soil health.
• Reduced discharge of nutrients (i.e., nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) into sewage/natural watercourses and landfills relieving eutrophication in water bodies.
• Empowered interdisciplinary design processes to create soil improvers and to valorise food by-products in food systems (e.g., land managers, industry, SMEs, local authorities, educational institutions and civil society).
• Higher number of co-developed solutions and investments (public and private) in circular bioeconomy projects.

Citizen science for soil health

Code: 22388 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-09 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

This topic contributes to the implementation of the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, in particular to its specific objective 8 “Increase soil literacy in society across
Member States”.

Project results should contribute to all the following outcomes:

• The public’s awareness of the value of soil is significantly increased.
• Citizens are empowered to take an active role in science and in increasing the knowledge base on soils by monitoring and gathering data on soil biodiversity and becoming more aware of the importance of soils and the soil food web in their daily lives.
• Greater availability of local scale data on soil health. This will expand and complement established soil databases to support critical landscape decisions and policy
  development.
• The EU Soil Observatory scope is enlarged and populated with citizen science data

Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) for a Living Lab network support structure

Code: 22384 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-08 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

This Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) aims at supporting the effective implementation of the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’ (hereafter referred to as the Soil Deal Mission) and in particular its overall goal of setting up a network of 100 living labs and lighthouses by 2030.

The FPA will allow to establish an effective support structure (hereafter referred to as LL support structure) to coordinate and promote activities under the mission’s network of living labs and lighthouses. The LL support structure will cater for the needs of living labs and lighthouses that will be selected through open calls in forthcoming Work Programmes of the Soil Deal Mission (from 2023 onwards).

Foster soil education across society

Code: 22382 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-07 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

This topic contributes to the implementation of the Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, in particular to its specific objective 8 “Increase soil literacy in society across Member States”. It supports the objectives of the European Green Deal, the European Climate Pact and the EU Soil Strategy for 2030. In addition, results obtained under this topic
should contribute to the objectives of the European Education Area, the Education for Climate Coalition and improve the European sustainability competence framework
(GreenComp) to prepare people to face the challenges of a changing climate world.

Project results should contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• teaching programmes and targeted communication, education and engagement materials on soil are more widely available in numerous European languages;
• higher uptake and diffusion of good practices and hands-on activities related to soil education across the EU and Associated Countries;
• soil literacy is more firmly embedded in educational curricula at all levels and supports behavioural change and the adoption of sustainable practices both individually and
  collectively based on a better understanding of the vital importance of soils for human life and planetary health;
• increased awareness of the importance of soil and its functions, as well as of the Mission objectives, amongst pupils, students and professionals across Europe.

Network on carbon farming for agricultural and forest soils

Code: 22380 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-06 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

This topic supports the implementation of the European Commission Communication on sustainable carbon cycles582 and the upcoming regulatory framework on carbon removals certification583, and thereby contributes to the design and implementation of carbon-farming practices in Europe.

Project results should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Increased knowledge about carbon farming practices through networking and exchange of experiences.
• Enhanced uptake and development of standards for carbon farming in Europe.
• Increased capacities for measuring, monitoring and standardising carbon fluxes, in particular at landscape level through a robust network for data collections.

Monitoring, reporting and verification of soil carbon and greenhouse gases balance

Code: 22377 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

This topic supports the implementation of key actions of the European Commission Communication on sustainable carbon cycles and carbon farming and the upcoming regulatory framework on carbon removals certification:

Project results should contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• The relationships between carbon flux dynamics of typical carbon farming practices and its driving factors (ecophysiology of ecosystems) as well as the impact of climate change on soil organic carbon (and as a consequence on soil fertility and food production) are better understood.
• The development of standards to track payment systems for carbon farming and, of methods to consider the maintenance of carbon already stored in soils in carbon farming schemes is enhanced.
• Reduced administrative and financial burden associated with carbon farming management practices.
• Increased stakeholder faith and robustness of standards in voluntary (or other) carbon markets, leading to increased potential for revenue opportunities.

Integration of biodiversity monitoring data into the Digital Twin Ocean

Code: 22310 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-07 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Identified relevant “sleeping” or inaccessible biodiversity data and establishment of partnerships with data owners to unlock data on marine life, and human activities that
  affect it, through the digital ocean twin;
• Harmonised data, protocols and vocabularies, amongst biodiversity monitoring networks and actors, including citizens science programmes, and national authorities monitoring programmes;
• Secured, sustained and reliable data flows from biodiversity monitoring programmes, including research projects, national and international monitoring programmes, into
  DTO data repositories, from data collectors to data integrators, and their integration/assimilation in existing models;
• Economies of scale and enhanced standardisation through pilot sea-basin scale monitoring for species across the trophic chains (plankton, including microbes, fishes,
  marine mammals, reptiles and birds, other if considered important);
• Tools to better support assessment of multiple human activities pressures on biodiversity through exploring and assessing different modes of operation, different policies
  development and their effect on biodiversity;
• Support to the Mission’s Blue Parks and biodiversity actions in the Mission Lighthouses.

Towards a European e-DNA library of marine and freshwater species

Code: 22308 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-09 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Contribution to the development of the next generation marine monitoring programmes and mapping initiatives that focus on collecting and analysing environmental DNA-of marine and freshwater species;
• Assessment of all relevant activities, actions and projects that entail collecting and analysing environmental DNA from marine and freshwater species implemented in the
  European Union and in the Associated countries for their synergies;
• Assessment of the feasibility of creation of an integrated European e-DNA library of all marine and freshwater species that would be based on FAIR principles and publicly
  available and support marine biodiversity monitoring programmes and mapping initiatives. Compatibility with the European Marine Observation and Data Network
  (EmodNet) and the future Ocean and Water knowledge system (Digital Twin Ocean) will be part of the assessment;
• Assessment of ongoing international efforts on standards and interoperability of data, methods, techniques, etc.
• Fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of marine genetic resources linked to biodiversity, in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030;
• Promote synergies and harmonisation between projects and initiatives to collect and analyse DNA of marine and freshwater species for their future successful scale up.

Towards local community-driven business models: regenerative ocean farming

Code: 22305 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-10 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Projects are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Evidence-based business plans for the development of entrepreneurship and successful local community-driven regenerative ocean farming initiatives;
• Job creation and new skills development;
• Provision of new ecosystem services from marine and coastal ecosystems;
• Preserved local marine and costal ecosystems, biodiversity and genetic diversity;
• Increased resilience of coastal and marine areas to climate change and generation of positive climate change mitigation effects;
• Improved marine and coastal habitats, biodiversity and enhanced conservation capacity;
• Increased knowledge on impact of regenerative ocean farming on local marine and coastal environment conditions.

Student and school activities for the promotion of education on ‘blue’ sustainability and the protection of marine and freshwater ecosystems

Code: 22303 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-08 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Increased mobilisation and engagement of children and youth in primary and secondary schools across the EU and in the Associated countries in the implementation of Mission objectives;
• Student and school projects implementing the Mission objectives and engaging and mobilising students, teachers and schools in the pursuit of ocean and water literacy,
  sustainability and Mission objectives, that at the same time contribute to the growing Network of European Blue Schools established under the EU4Ocean Coalition for
  Ocean Literacy;
• Increased ocean and water literacy among children and youth, teachers and schools, improved understanding of the value and of ocean and waters and enhanced sense of responsibility among the youth and teachers towards this planet and its boundaries;
• Ramp up accreditation of schools in the Network of European Blue Schools and engagement in their related activities, based on methodologies of Open Schooling,
  engaging with the community and communicating the results of their projects and in the implementation of Mission objectives and bring the ocean and water into the classroom at the EU- and Associated countries level.

Lighthouse in the Baltic and the North Sea basins – bringing sustainable algae-based products and solutions to the market

Code: 22301 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-06 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Increased market presence and further development of sustainable algae-based solutions and products for various uses and needs (e.g. human consumption, animal feed, pharmaceutical applications, waste-water treatment, innovative, circular and sustainable textiles applications or applications for agriculture);
• Enhanced knowledge base on algae-based solutions and products expected to reach European markets in the short to medium term;
• Enhanced public awareness and understanding of consumer acceptance issues of new algae based products:
• Identified and reduced market-entry barriers and barriers to uptake and scale up innovative and sustainable algae-based solutions and products
• Expansion and integration of innovative and circular industrial ecosystems and industrial clusters by bringing innovative and sustainable algae-based solutions and products to the market, integrating and linking up actors throughout the value chain to explore synergies.

Mediterranean sea basin lighthouse - Actions to prevent, minimise and remediate chemical pollution

Code: 22299 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Innovative, reproducible solutions to reduce and remediate pollution from chemicals (such as mercury, persistent organic pollutants, plant protection products (pesticides, biocides), per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances – PFAFs, antifoulants as well as other chemical pollutants) 332 in the Mediterranean Sea basin in line with the target of
  reduction by at least 50% of the use and risk of chemical pesticides and to the objectives of the EU Zero Pollution Action Plan and the Convention for the protection of the
  Mediterranean sea against pollution and the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability;
• Accelerated uptake of innovative solutions to prevent and minimize chemical pollution;
• Effective monitoring of chemical pollution in line with existing methodologies under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive[333] and under the Water Framework Directive;
• Support Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive implementation, which provide indicators and mechanism for assessments and measures
  to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) and Good Chemical Status;
• Contribution to the Mission’s Digital Ocean and Water Knowledge system through marine observations and open data and knowledge sharing;
• Empowered citizens taking action against pollution.

Transformation of regional economic systems for climate resilience and sustainability

Code: 22297 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Projects results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Relevant economic sectors affected by climate change are transformed and ready to face the future anticipated climate changes risks;
• An increased and improved range of c limate-resilient business models, value chains, and re-skilling opportunities (including training capabilities) are understood, socially
  acceptable and made available to all regions and communities;
• An increased capacity of local businesses, social partnerns and industries for sustainable coping with climate change;
• An increased capacity of national, regional and/or local governments, consumers organizations and other social partners, industries and businesses in empowering consumers to make informed choices and play active roles in transition to climate resilience;
• A better understanding of mechanisms that would drive transformation of the economic systems thanks to innovation, intended not only as technical innovation but also
  including social and user-driven innovation.

Boost the sponge function of landscape as a way to improve climate-resilience to water management challenges

Code: 22295 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Expected Outcome:

Projects are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Best available and improved or new solutions to improve sponge function of soil, ground water and surface water systems are used and/or made available to all regions and
  communities across EU for replication.
• Solutions for improving climate-resilience to extreme events have been developed, tested and brought closer to the market.
• Regions and communities have been actively engaged and involved in development and testing of a transformative solutions for climate resilience building.

Best practices on and piloting insurance solutions for climate adaptation in EU regions and communities

Code: 22292 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Expected Outcome: Projects are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• A set of weather and climate risk insurance products to be used or replicated across EU regions and communities.
• Mechanisms to record, collect and share climate-related risk and losses data integrated within the Risk Data Hub 102, the Copernicus services, and other initiatives.
• Guidance on insurance pricing that reflect risks reduction measures, and to ensure affordable insurance cover.
• Trial innovative risk transfer solutions to deal with climate-induced risk, including parametric insurance and insurance of nature-based solutions.
• Advance public sector modernization when it comes to the demand for insurance solutions for climate adaptation.
• Open up opportunities in the insurance market for cutting edge risk transfer solutions.
• Reinforced policy frameworks to facilitate the allocation of substantial additional national and regional budgets to increase the penetration in the EU of insurance solutions to deal with climate-induced risks.

Establishing of national cancer mission hubs and creation of network to support the Mission on Cancer

Code: 22287 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CANCER-01-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/05/2022 | End submission calls: 07/09/2022

The integration of the Mission on Cancer with activities at national, regional and where relevant at local level will be of utmost important to ensure its success.
Taking into account the differences of national health and research and innovation systems, the coordination and support of cancer mission-related activities at national, regional and where relevant at local level are essential in this regard. At the same time, synergies with actions under Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan need to be generated.

Towards the creation of a European Cancer Patient Digital Centre

Code: 22284 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CANCER-01-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/05/2022 | End submission calls: 07/09/2022

The overall goal of the Mission on Cancer and the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan includes a better quality of life for patients and their families living with, and after, cancer.
Project results will support the creation of a virtual European Cancer Patient Digital Centre (ECPDC), which is a federated network of patient controlled (national) health data infrastructures enabling the voluntary exchange of patients and survivors’ health data in a standardised approach, for primary and secondary use.

Pragmatic clinical trials to optimise treatments for patients with refractory cancers

Code: 22281 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CANCER-01-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/05/2022 | End submission calls: 07/09/2022

While cancer research and innovation have generated novel treatment options, cancer patients across Europe need access to more effective and patient-centred interventions which keep up with increasing demands in a complex and fragmented oncology healthcare landscape with spiralling healthcare costs.

Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic with its detrimental impact on cancer control has demonstrated the need for different clinical trial designs with fewer inclusion and exclusion criteria that would allow evaluation of real-world effectiveness driving better and more affordable treatment solutions that are widely accessible across EU regions, Member States and Associated Countries.

Pragmatic clinical trials focus on choosing between care options. Pragmatic trials evaluate effectiveness, the effect of treatment in routine (real-world) clinical practice. Some examples include treatment versus active surveillance in patient management, combination of treatment interventions, determination of optimal dose and dose schedule, de-escalation of treatment intervention, comparative effectiveness of different treatment interventions.

Proposals under this topic should aim for delivering results that direct, tailor towards and contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Cancer patients and their caregivers will have access to optimised and affordable treatment interventions that increase their quality of life, across EU regions, Member States and Associated Countries;
• Healthcare professionals and academia will generate clinical evidence, by evaluating effectiveness in randomised or cluster-randomised academic investigator-initiated pragmatic clinical trials, how to best perform and deploy evidence-based treatment interventions that improve outcomes in real life for routine healthcare, including quality of life, for cancer patients who often present with co-morbidities;
• National healthcare providers, policymakers and authorities in EU Regions, Member States and Associated Countries will have the evidence to implement optimised and affordable treatments in their healthcare systems, including in everyday medical practice.

Strengthening research capacities of Comprehensive Cancer Infrastructures

Code: 22279 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CANCER-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/05/2022 | End submission calls: 07/09/2022

The Mission Board of the EU Mission on Cancer has defined Comprehensive Cancer Infrastructures as ‘national or regional infrastructures that provide resources and services to support, improve and integrate cancer care, research, training of care professionals and education for cancer patients, survivors and families/carers.’

Today, the level of development of Comprehensive Cancer Infrastructures and their capacities, such as their digital, research and innovation-related capacities, vary considerably across Member States and Associated Countries, leading to inequalities, in particular in terms of research, quality and access to care.

The Horizon Europe Mission on Cancer will complement the set-up across Member States and several Associated Countries of an EU network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres that will be established through the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan by 2025. The Mission aims to achieve the target of ensuring that 90% of eligible cancer patients have access to Comprehensive Cancer Infrastructures by 2030. In that context, this topic should set up, across Member States and several Associated Countries, a capacity-building programme for countries of the EU network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres to be established through the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan^[1], to support them in improving or developing their existing or future Comprehensive Cancer Infrastructures, focussing on developing their digital, research & innovation-related capacities and their integration with cancer care.

Proposals under this topic should aim at delivering results that are directed at and contributing to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Research and health policy makers will benefit from support to further develop or set up Comprehensive Cancer Infrastructures, leading to improvement in terms of research and access to care;
• Research and healthcare professionals will benefit from a better integration between research and care;
• Researchers will benefit from innovative infrastructures to perform research and participate in studies;
• Citizens, including patients and their caregivers will have enhanced access to screening, diagnostics and treatments, improved care pathways and more integrated care. Their involvement and participation to clinical trials will be facilitated.

Improving and upscaling primary prevention of cancer through implementation research

Code: 22260 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CANCER-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 24/05/2022 | End submission calls: 07/09/2022

For an increasing number of cancer indications potential mechanisms and means to prevent the onset of cancer have been identified. However, with cancer incidence steadily increasing across all age groups, parts of society, European Member States, Associated Countries and elsewhere, decisive action on primary prevention should be stepped up and made a collective responsibility. Implementing and upscaling of primary cancer-centred prevention programmes would contribute to achieving this goal.

Creating a transnational network of National Contact Points (NCPs) for EU Missions

Code: 22253 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-NCP-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

This topic aims at supporting activities that are enabling or contributing to all the expected impacts of all destinations of the Missions Work Programme.

To that end, proposals under this topic should aim for delivering results that are directed towards and contributing to all of the following expected outcomes:

• An improved and professionalised NCP service across Europe, thereby helping simplify access to EU Missions calls, lowering the entry barriers for newcomers, and raising the average quality of proposals submitted.
• A more consistent level of NCP support services across Europe.
• Mobilising expertise from across all of the clusters, as well as from the other pillars of Horizon (a whole of programme approach) and into other policy areas thus reflecting the ‘beyond R&I’ nature of the missions, as well as outreach activities to the most relevant national and regional networks that support dissemination of other major EU funding programmes and support EU-wide engagement of major relevant EU policy actions.
• Triggering societal transformations by encouraging applicants to enhance citizen engagement and actions widely relevant to society.

Building the mission's knowledge repository and advancing the European Soil Observatory

Code: 21768 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Data and knowledge on soils are widely distributed and generally not sufficiently structured, which hampers their discovery and usability. A particular difficulty is the integration of outputs and results from research projects that would support a holistic understanding of soil health challenges and potential solutions or allow for the re-use of available knowledge and data for various purposes (e.g. follow-up research, practical applications).

A European Social Innovation Catalyst Fund to Advance EU Mission Objectives by Replicating and Scaling-up Existing, Demonstrably Successful Social Innovations

Code: 21761 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOCIALCAT-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 21/09/2022

The call targets

• for the consortium that will manage the project, a diverse assemblages of actors of social innovation, i.e., public authorities, academia, business, citizens and citizens’ organizations;
• for the creation of the fund, national research and innovation funding agencies, philanthropists, and other public or private investors; and
• for the replication of social innovations, as beneficiaries of third party financing through open calls, social innovators, social enterprises, companies working for reaching social impact and/or with a specific consideration of social impact, etc.

Testing and demonstrating transformative solutions on climate resilience, mainstreaming nature based solutions in the systemic transformation

Code: 21759 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01-06 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

The proposal should develop and test innovative solutions, combining technological and social innovation, leading to an increase of the resilience and adaptation capacity to climate change in the involved regions and communities, assuring that nature based solutions are explored as priority and at the very heart of the development whenever possible.

Marine litter and pollution – Smart and low environmental impact fishing gears

Code: 21754 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Proposals under this topic are expected to identify a set of suitable innovative smart and sustainable solutions to be tested, validated and demonstrated in real conditions, to address negative impacts of fishing gears on marine life and habitats and promote long-term sustainability in our ocean and seas.

Danube river basin lighthouse – Protection and restoration of wetlands, flood plains, coastal wetlands and salt marshes and their biodiversity

Code: 21752 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

The proposals will focus on demonstration of active and passive restoration of wetlands, flood plains, coastal wetlands such as salt marshes including in the transitional waters of the Danube river delta at a large scale.

Prevent and eliminate litter, plastics and microplastics: Innovative solutions for waste-free European rivers

Code: 21749 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

In line with the EU Towards Zero Pollution Action Plan for Air, Water and Soil, proposals should demonstrate scalable breakthrough innovations (technological, business, social and governance) to prevent and minimize pollution from litter, plastics and microplastics in European rivers.

European Blue Parks – Protection and restoration solutions for degraded coastal and marine habitats

Code: 21738 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

Proposals under this topic will address the degradation of coastal and marine habitats, including degraded seabed habitats and will develop and demonstrate protection and restoration solutions to upgrade and enhance the EU’s blue natural capital.
Innovation actions have to show the potential to be up-scaled and reproduced at European level and beyond.

Unlocking of financial resources for investments into climate resilience

Code: 21690 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

This topic is expected to support regions and communities participating in the Mission with developing investment strategies, including identifying, innovating and, to the extent possible testing, solutions that help to mobilise financing and resources, throughout their transformational journey to climate resilience.

User driven applications and tools for regional and local authorities, and other end users focusing on climate impacts, data and knowledge.

Code: 21686 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CLIMA-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 12/05/2022 | End submission calls: 27/09/2022

The successful proposal will develop new technologies addressing access to key climate data and information services; such technologies will use improved user-defined and user-friendly tools tailored to regional and community level applications for adaptation to climate change able to build climate resilience in all sectors/services involved; the focus will be on case-specific climatological and physical conditions critical for the areas mentioned in the Mission Implementation Plan.

Designing inclusive, safe, affordable and sustainable urban mobility

Code: 18316 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2022-CIT-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 28/04/2022 | End submission calls: 06/09/2022

The scope of this action is to support local authorities in accelerating mobility changes and address a significant concern, namely that people returning to work after the lockdown will seek out alternatives so that allocating public space, bicycles, pedestrians and public transport and reducing the space available for cars will encourage people to cycle, walk or use public transport rather than take the car.

Unleashing the innovation potential of public transport as backbone of urban mobility

Code: 17703 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-02-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 11/01/2022 | End submission calls: 26/04/2022

The funded actions will contribute to the objectives of the Cities Mission and to the priorities of the European Green Deal, which stresses that “transport should become drastically less polluting, especially in cities. A combination of measures should address emissions, urban congestion and improved public transport”.
Proposals should aim to improve the competitiveness of public transport by implementing in the living labs integrated, complementary and reinforcing packages of urban mobility measures.

Positive Clean Energy Districts

Code: 17691 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-02-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 11/01/2022 | End submission calls: 26/04/2022

The topic addresses the objectives of the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, hereafter referred to as the Cities Mission, to support, promote and showcase 100 climate-neutral and smart European cities by 2030 and make these cities act into experimentation and innovation hubs to put all European cities in a position to become climate-neutral by 2050. The topic will thus contribute to the twin green and digital transitions promoted by the European Green Deal and will lead by example on how to speed up the necessary transformation towards urban climate neutrality, including in a human-centred way.

Global cooperation and exchange on urban climate neutrality

Code: 17689 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-02-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 11/01/2022 | End submission calls: 26/04/2022

Many cities across the world have climate action plans in place and are looking for solutions on how to best bridge the implementation gap between their climate neutrality goals and the pace of current transformation.
To advance this process, this mission aims to set a leading international example, with at least 100 climate-neutral cities at the heart of a wide international knowledge and practice network focused on delivering urban solutions for climate neutrality.

Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) for the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission Platform

Code: 17680 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-02-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 11/01/2022 | End submission calls: 26/04/2022

This Framework Partnership Agreement aims at contributing to the implementation of the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, hereafter referred to as the Cities Mission, and its objective of achieving 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030.

Urban planning and design for just, sustainable, resilient and climate-neutral cities by 2030

Code: 17674 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-02-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 11/01/2022 | End submission calls: 26/04/2022

The overall aim of this topic is to support a diverse range of urban areas across Europe (e.g. small and medium sized, port cities, cities with different geographical, climatic, socioeconomic conditions, levels of preparedness etc.), their urban authorities, stakeholders and citizens to identify, plan, design, fund, roll out and replicate solutions and measures in order to achieve climate neutrality, sustainability and resilience and significantly reduce emissions across the most relevant sectors by 2030.

Support to the regions in developing pathways towards climate resilience and corresponding innovation agendas

Code: 17426 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-02-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 11/01/2022 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

This topic aims to have at least 100 regions and communities that will have formulated their vision of a climate resilient future and the transformative adaptation pathways, plans and innovation portfolios to reach it. This action aims at providing the necessary knowledge, expertise, and services to support regions in the formulation of their climate resilient future and of their place-based transformative adaptation pathways, plans and innovation portfolios.

Local engagement of citizens in the co-creation of societal transformational change for climate resilience

Code: 17422 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-02-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 11/01/2022 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

The central aim of this topic is to support regions and communities in the meaningful and effective engagement of citizens and stakeholders in all phases of the Mission and in all steps of the region’s transformational journey to climate resilience.

Development of climate change risk assessments in European regions and communities based on a transparent and harmonised Climate Risk Assessment approach

Code: 17417 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-02-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 11/01/2022 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

The objective of this call focus on the preparation and the planning for climate resilience and the need for a better understanding of climate change related risks.

The proposal should address two distinctive actions:

• 1st Action- Development and beta testing of the climate risk and vulnerability assessment framework tool
• 2nd Action- Using the climate risk assessments framework tool in regions and communities, to conduct climate risks, vulnerabilities and impacts assessments as a basis for development or revision of local emergency and risk management plans.

Towards asset level modelling of climate risks and adaptation

Code: 17414 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-02-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 11/01/2022 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

The objective of this call focus on the preparation and the planning for climate resilience and the need for a better understanding of climate change related risks.

Large scale demonstrators of climate resilience creating cross-border value

Code: 17412 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-02-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 11/01/2022 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

This topic aims to deliver deep demonstrations of systemic transformations to climate resilience. Proposals under this topic must deploy large-scale demonstrations of scientifically sound innovative solutions, combining technological and social innovation, with concrete measurable impacts leading to an increase of the resilience and adaptation capacity to climate change across the territory of the European Union and associated countries.

Better understanding of the impact of risk factors and health determinants on the development and progression of cancer

Code: 17252 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CANCER-02-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 26/04/2022

This topic will contribute to the achievement of the mission’s goal through a better understanding of the impact of risk factors and health determinants on the development and progression of cancer (including metastasis). The focus should be on poorly understood cancers and cancer subtypes, including in children and adolescents.

National engagement sessions and support to the establishment of soil health living labs

Code: 17247 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-02-07 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 24/03/2022

The successful proposal will ensure an effective launch of the first soil health living labs and lighthouses by preparing and supporting stakeholder communities across Member States and Associated countries and ensuring land managers, industries, consumers and society at large work together and take effective action on soil health across sectors and land uses.

Linking soil health to nutritional and safe food

Code: 17244 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-02-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 24/03/2022

Soils are essential for the global food system and regulate water, carbon and nitrogen cycles but are put under pressure from population growth and climate change. The quality of the soil plays a central role in determining food quality as it provides the substrate and building blocks for the growth of plants and their edible food produce, which are then harvested for consumption. There is a need to build on the existing knowledge resulting from the latest EU R&I activities and infrastructures that elicit the link between soil, food, diets and human health.

Mediterranean sea basin lighthouse - actions to prevent, minimise and remediate litter and plastic pollution

Code: 17241 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-03-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

In line with the EU Zero Pollution Action Plan for Air, Water and Soil, proposals should demonstrate scalable breakthrough innovations (technological, business, social and governance) to prevent and minimize marine and freshwater pollution from litter, plastics and microplastics. Following the zero pollution hierarchy, proposals should focus on demonstrating replicable solutions to prevent and minimise pollution in the Mediterranean Sea.

Atlantic and Arctic basins lighthouse – coordination activities

Code: 17239 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-02-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

Project results are expected to structure the effect to consolidate and engage a wide community of relevant stakeholders across the Atlantic and Arctic sea basins able to ensure an effective governance structure. Also, they are expected to increase awareness and involvement of citizens in its implementation in the Atlantic and Arctic seas basins and beyond. It is also focus on effective provision of technical services, governance and business models to support and guarantee a sustainable socio-economic development of the Atlantic and Arctic seas basins.

Incentives and business models for soil health

Code: 17236 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-02-05 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 24/03/2022

Project results are expected to increase opportunities for investments in soil health across value chains as well as novel opportunities for developing and diversifying income for land managers. Also they are expected to increase awareness about the value of investing in soil health and its various co-benefits for land managers, businesses (incl. the financial and insurance sectors), local authorities and civil society. Also aims to enhance cooperation and new partnerships across different sectors to significantly improve soil health and support the manifold soil functions.

The relation of young generations with the sea and water: values, expectations, and engagement

Code: 17232 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-05-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

The results of the project are expected to provide evidence and documented results for the formulation of future initiatives, policies and strategies that address social change, future needs and expectations of new generations in relation to the sustainability of aquatic ecosystems and enhance the literacy of the oceans between them. The connection of the new generations with the oceans, seas and waters is also expected to be better understood, ultimately leading to new products and services, thus supporting the innovative potential of the marine / shipping related sectors. This will provide information and help outline social interaction plans for new participatory approaches and networking opportunities, aiming to bring the younger generation closer to the sea and the water and to create or strengthen their emotional connection with it.

Danube river basin lighthouse – coordination activities

Code: 17227 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-02-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

Project results are expected to contribute to the effect of consolidate and engage a wide community of relevant stakeholders across the entire Danube river basin, including its delta, able to ensure an effective governance structure for the achievement of the Mission objectives. Also it is expected to contribute to an effective provision of technical services, governance and business models to support and guarantee a sustainable socio-economic development of the entire Danube river basin, including its delta as well as to focus on well-functioning basin scale innovation ecosystem attractive to investors and businesses.

Mediterranean sea basin lighthouse – coordination activities

Code: 17224 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-03-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

Proposals under this topic will bring together complementary public and/or private organisations and networks, and integrate heterogeneous expertise to support the rolling out of a “lighthouse” within Mediterranean sea basin and provide a broad portfolio of services ensuring the development and deployment of innovative solutions addressing the objectives of the Mission Ocean, seas and waters in the lighthouse area.

Danube river basin lighthouse – restoration of fresh and transitional water ecosystems

Code: 17222 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-02-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

Proposals will show an effective and economically profitable way to freshwater ecosystem restoration and their sustainable use in the Danube river basin (including the transitional waters of Danube river delta), focusing on the reduction of the impact of artificial river flow barriers on wildlife movement, restoration and protection of biodiversity and valuable ecosystems (biodiversity hotspots), protection of inhabited areas against floods, measures to reduce impact of drought on freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity as well as sustainable management of river sediments.

Develop and validate a set of quality of life and patient preference measures for cancer patients and survivors

Code: 17204 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CANCER-02-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 26/04/2022

Proposals under this topic should aim to contribute to cancer patients, survivors and caregivers will benefit from enhanced quality of life, more effective and less burdensome treatments with better supportive care and counselling approaches. Health care professionals, supportive workers, counsellors and industry will be better aware of the (unmet) needs, expectations and preferences of cancer patients, survivors and their relatives and be compelled to address them.

Next generation soil advisors

Code: 17188 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-02-08 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 24/03/2022

The objective of this topic is to promote the emergence of specialised “soil advisors” and to strengthen the skills of existing advisors and in view of promoting the uptake of innovations for sustainable land management practices by farmers, foresters and other land managers and owners throughout Europe.

Engage with and activate municipalities and regions to protect and restore soil health

Code: 17177 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-02-06 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 24/03/2022

The main objective of this topic is to create spaces and practices for regional and local dialogues on soil health and land management, in order to develop a shared understanding of the nature of the challenges and co-create public (including policy response) and private solutions for the protection and restoration of soil health.

Validating and further developing indicators for soil health and functions

Code: 17175 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-02-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 24/03/2022

The results of the project to contribute to a harmonized and economic framework for measuring soil health and for the development of a soil health index, based on a widely accepted definition of soil health. In the long run, the results may support harmonized soil monitoring and reporting in Europe, as targeted by the new EU soil strategy. We also need to significantly improve soil health monitoring capabilities and evaluate the results of management practices and measures based on a set of robust soil health indicators (status and change) and receptors for different uses land. It should also focus on supporting policy development and creating incentives for sustainable soil management through increased data on the links between soil health, soil functions and ecosystem services.

Piloting citizen science in marine and freshwater domains

Code: 17170 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-05-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

Proposals should connect EU citizens and local communities with the ocean, seas and waters, facilitate broad ownership and education and co-design the transitions within the communities that will allow the European Green Deal targets to be reached. Proposals should also help to create a stronger emotional connection between society and aquatic ecosystems and collective responsibility, as well as elicit interest in taking action.

Lighthouse in the Baltic and the North Sea basins - Low impact marine aquaculture and multi-purpose use of marine space

Code: 17168 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-04-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

Proposals will show the way to profitable and sustainable seafood farming away from the densely populated coasts of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. Such farming will not depend on fossil fuels; a focus should be on low trophic level species. Increased production will not lead to increased pressure on the ecosystem, therefore will not compromise the achievement of Good Environmental Status.

Atlantic and Arctic basin lighthouse - restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems and increased climate resilience

Code: 17164 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-02-03 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

Proposals are expected to focus on marine ecosystem restoration at a large scale through:
-reduction of pressures (e.g. from fishing, pollution, extraction, barriers, and other human activities);
– application of ecosystem-based management, nature-based and building with nature restoration measures boosting resilience to climate change (e.g. sea level rise, floods, loss of permafrost in the Arctic) and mitigating its impacts;
– other effective locally adapted restoration measures and appropriate combinations of all the above.

Develop new methods and technologies for cancer screening and early detection

Code: 17161 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CANCER-02-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 26/04/2022

Research is needed to develop and validate non-invasive, or minimally invasive cancer screening and detection methodologies for everyday medical practice and population-based screening programmes, including enhanced participation of the target population. These programmes should become faster, more precise and personalised, affordable and accessible.

Social, economic and cultural factors driving land management and land degradation

Code: 17145 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-02-04 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 24/03/2022

Avoiding soil degradation and fostering soil health is for a large part conditional upon the land management practices implemented by land managers, together with pressures on natural and semi-natural habitats. Those practices are framed by several factors (economic, social and cultural) and by the policies applied (agriculture, spatial planning, environment, economic, land tenure, etc.). It is necessary to understand those factors and the manner to influence them, so that farmers and other land managers in rural and urban areas are supported in implementing practices that are conducive to soil health and related ecosystem services.

Baltic and North Sea basin lighthouse – coordination activities

Code: 17142 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-04-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

Proposals under this topic will bring together complementary public and/or private organisations and networks, and integrate heterogeneous expertise to support the rolling out of a “lighthouse” within Baltic and North sea basins and provide a broad portfolio of services ensuring the development and deployment of innovative solutions addressing the objectives of the Mission Ocean, seas and waters in the lighthouse area.

From knowledge gaps to roadmaps on soil mission objectives

Code: 17137 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-02-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 24/03/2022

For effective coordination and implementation of the mission’s activities, it is necessary to have a detailed view of already existing knowledge, main knowledge gaps and drivers of soil health along with a common understanding of pathways (R&I and other actions) to act on soil health in line with the mission’s specific objectives. Such “roadmaps” for action for each of the mission’s specific objectives should integrate the needs from different disciplines and sectors and address various soil types, land uses and climatic zones across Europe.

Underlying models for the European Digital Twin Ocean

Code: 17131 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-05-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

The objective is to prepare the next generation of EU digital ocean models (Twin Ocean) complementary to the Copernicus marine service. They should be integrated into the architecture of the European Digital Twin Ocean, a public infrastructure (linked action with topic “EU Public Infrastructure for the European Digital Twin”: EU Public Infrastructure for the European Digital Twin Ocean, included under Other actions) to ensure access to required input and validation data (e.g. from EMODnet, EuroGOOS etc.), high performance and distributed cloud computing facilities.

European Blue Parks

Code: 17118 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-02-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/12/2021 | End submission calls: 12/04/2022

Proposals under this topic will focus on innovation actions in protection, conservation and enhancement of the EU’s blue natural capital that have the potential to be up scaled and reproduced at European level and beyond. Proposals will develop a strategic approach towards identifying needs, sharing innovation and transferring solutions between initiatives to create well managed marine protected areas.

Support the deployment of lighthouse demonstrators for the New European Bauhaus initiative in the context of Horizon Europe missions

Code: 13991 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-NEB-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 28/09/2021 | End submission calls: 25/01/2022

This action will contribute to the Delivery Phase of the NEB, by deploying mission-oriented pilot projects that will act as ‘lighthouse demonstrators’ across the territory of the European Union and Associated Countries. They should embrace the key principles of the NEB initiative (sustainability, inclusion and aesthetics), using architecture, design and culture as core resources for a sustainable society, and the mission-oriented approach (impactful, measurable, targeted) in an innovative and exemplary manner.

Coordination of complementary actions for missions

Code: 11089 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-COOR-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/06/2021 | End submission calls: 14/09/2021

The mission concept aims to deliver societal impact. This action aims to foster cooperation and coordination between EU-level actions and complementary national, regional and local actions in support of the implementation of missions. This action should also leverage opportunities raised by the digital transition. It should enhance the missions’ potential for rapid testing, piloting, demonstrating, scaling up and de-risking of large place-based R&I projects/initiatives, after the conclusions of their preparatory phase.

Collaborative local governance models to accelerate the emblematic transformation of urban environment and contribute to the New European Bauhaus initiative and the objectives of the European Green Deal

Code: 10756 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-01-02 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/06/2021 | End submission calls: 14/09/2021

In order to contribute to the European Green Deal objectives of climate-neutrality, sustainability, prosperity and inclusiveness, cities will have to undergo a rapid and radical transformation and come up with creative, sustainable and collaborative solutions.  A well co-designed public space provides the unique opportunity to improve its climate-neutrality, while increasing their attractiveness and social inclusiveness. As promoted by the New European Bauhaus initiative, a systemic co-designed approach to ‘quality climate-neutral urban transformation’ can create living space, where the best technical performances meet citizens’ social, emotional, cultural and aesthetic needs and values.

Supporting national, regional and local authorities across Europe to prepare for the transition towards climate neutrality within cities

Code: 10754 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CIT-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/06/2021 | End submission calls: 14/09/2021

Specific national networks for these cities will support translating and tailoring the goals of the European Green Deal Strategy and all relevant initiatives launched within this framework to the local specificities in close collaboration with national and local authorities, stakeholders and citizens.

Preparing the ground for healthy soils: building capacities for engagement, outreach and knowledge

Code: 10747 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/06/2021 | End submission calls: 20/10/2021

The intended mission’s goal, as specified in the mission report  is to ensure that by 2030 at least 75% of soils in each EU Member State are healthy, or show a significant improvement towards meeting accepted thresholds of indicators, to support ecosystem services.

Coordination of complementary actions for missions

Code: 10745 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-COOR-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/06/2021 | End submission calls: 14/09/2021

This action aims to foster cooperation and coordination between EU-level actions and complementary national, regional and local actions in support of the implementation of missions.

Preparing UNCAN.eu, a European initiative to understand cancer

Code: 10743 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-UNCAN-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/06/2021 | End submission calls: 20/10/2021

The intended goal of the mission on cancer is to save more than three million lives by 2030, with cancer patients living longer and better.

Better prepared regional and local authorities to adapt to climate change

Code: 10725 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-CLIMA-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/06/2021 | End submission calls: 14/09/2021

Proposals for the call under the Adaptation to Climate Change mission should set out credible pathways to prepare regional and local authorities, citizens and other stakeholders to build resilience to climate change.

Preparation for deployment of lighthouse demonstrators and solution scale ups and cross-cutting citizen and stakeholder involvement

Code: 10702 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-OCEAN-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/06/2021 | End submission calls: 14/09/2021

The present call aims to prepare the implementation of Mission Ocean, Seas and Waters, with a particular focus on providing support for effective and timely deployment of the mission research and innovation core and for crosscutting citizen and stakeholder involvement during the identification, design and implementation of the mission.

Preparing the ground for healthy soils: building capacities for engagement, outreach and knowledge

Code: 10348 | Identifier Code: HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-01-01 | Programme name: Missions | Sub-program: Missions | Start submission calls: 22/06/2021 | End submission calls: 22/10/2021

The intended mission’s goal, as specified in the mission report  is to ensure that by 2030 at least 75% of soils in each EU Member State are healthy, or show a significant improvement towards meeting accepted thresholds of indicators, to support ecosystem services.